Teaching literacy through the arts. tools for teaching literacy series

Of course, being able to talk, read and write about the arts and arts practice is important to the artistic process, however an artist uses much more than visible traditional literacies to create meaning. They use arts-specific vocabulary, metaphors, embodiment, and other more demanding ways to express themselves through using their art. Additionally, collaboration and sharing are important aspects of arts classrooms. These literacies however, remain invisible, particularly in schools where high stakes tests are used constantly to check up on traditional visible literacies.

The Australian Curriculum for example highlights in the General Capability: Literacy that all teachers are teachers of literacy. The key concepts in this capability are given as text, grammar, word and visual knowledge. Other modes such as aural, gestural and spatial that are used when we communicate with each other should be included here.

The arts curriculum includes the notions of responding to and making art. In Canada, the digital arts have been a strong focus in the curriculum, emphasising how artists, arts professionals, and arts community organisations integrate digital tools as part of their practice. The Canadian curriculum is looking to the future on virtual reality and augmented reality for economic and social growth, as well as continuing their recent teaching and research focus on maker education problem solving or project based learning.

But our research has revealed that teachers are being pressured to teach and practice traditional literacies at the expense of these important arts-literacies. Researchers around the world have spent decades looking at the relationships between the arts, well-being, and the ways we perform literacies on a daily basis. Philosophers of education such as Maxine Greene and Elliot Eisner have defended the need to pay more attention to the arts in both teaching and learning, and research, as it would have positive impact in the schooling of all students.

In classrooms it would mean more focus on important general capabilities such as personal and social capabilities, critical and creative thinking, and ethical and intercultural understanding. More recently in Canada, work by Brock University Professor Jennifer Rowsell on the relationships between humans, literacy, and the arts as part of the community arts zone project has expanded the way educators understand the teaching of literacy and at the same time revitalised the literacy and arts community in Southern Ontario.

CAZ visual arts teacher participant, December, This necessary question invites a collateral one, which is: what happens when we make invisible literacies visible?

As established researchers have found, these modes are often hidden. That is, there are ways of interacting that implicitly support cultural and social awareness and encourage personal and professional growth, but are not stated in any curriculum.

Maker education problem based or project based learning has also been a recent example of how literacies can be hidden. Maker work can include making meaning using invisible literacies by playing with sound, building structures, coding and playing with software, making 3D impressions. We must then ask what are the implications for post-millenial students in this day and age? What audiences are they making for, and what kind of citizens do they aspire to be?

Similar patterns and themes were grouped together and categorized. In addition, multiple methods of quantitative analysis were utilized. While study participants were randomly assigned to control and treatment conditions, there is little valid comparison between the two groups. There is only comparison between the groups on the city-wide third grade ELA tests taken at the end of the year, and no pretest data are factored into the analysis.

It is difficult to say whether differences between the two groups are attributable to LTA or expected academic growth after a year of schooling. What approach is most effective in providing professional development to teaching artists participating in arts integration programs? What elements of the collaboration between teaching artists and classroom teachers impact student growth and learning?

Key Findings: While all students had relatively positive attitudes toward museums, treatment students had more positive attitudes and were more likely to go with their families to a museum than control students.

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We will send these to the email you provided. Do this monthly, and ask them to embellish both the portrait and descriptions with details like favorite color, game, or food. Write in clay, play dough, or shaving cream. Children love getting messy and using their hands.

This is a great way to practice forming letters, words, or even sentences. Create poetry using a simple prompt. Model journaling. Share different ways to keep track of thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Practice letter-sound awareness by painting your own animal alphabet.